In this lesson, you will learn how about the word “대신,” which can be used in a few different ways to have the meaning of “instead.” In addition to this, you will learn a few other concepts and words that have the same or similar meaning to 대신. Let’s get started.

Instead: 대신(에)

If you look up the word “대신” in the dictionary, you will see “instead” as the English translation. Though there are times when no particle needs to be attached to it (I will get to those later), ~에 is usually attached to 대신 when it is used. The simplest way to use this word is immediately after a noun with no additional grammar. For example:

This is pretty simple when you are just talking about nouns, but if you want to express that one does an action instead of another action, there are two ways you can do this. Both ways involve using the ~는 것 principle.

If you want to say “instead of eating rice…” you could do either of the following:

1) 밥을 먹는 것 대신에
2) 밥을 먹는 대신에

In the first example, you are using ~는 것 to change 밥을 먹다 into a clause that describes a noun. “것” then acts as the noun and 대신에 can be used after it. For example:

밥 대신에 = instead of rice
밥을 먹는 것 대신에 = instead of eating rice

In the second example, 대신 replaces 것and acts as the noun.

Regardless of what word acts as the noun, and regardless of the slightly different appearances between the two sentences – they have exactly the same meaning, and Korean people cannot distinguish them.

The only difference between using the ~는 것 principle and not using it would be the same as expressed in English. Notice the slightly difference nuisance between the first sentence and the second and third:

Notice that in all examples, the present tense of ~는 것 is always used. Even if you are talking about something in the past or future, you should always use ~는 것 대신에 (or ~는 대신에) and neither of the following:

밥을 먹은 대신에 빵을 먹었어요 = incorrect
연필을 쓸 대신에 펜을 쓸 거예요 = incorrect

.

차라리

The word “차라리” is another one of those words that has very little meaning on its own, but intensifies a feeling within particular sentences. “차라리” is used in sentences when one is talking about doing one action over another. Because of this usage, it is often used in sentences with “대신에.” For example:

But that sentence is missing something when written like that. When written like that, the two sentences don’t have any logical connection between them. However, by using “차라리” a feeling is given to the sentence that the stated action is preferred over some other action. Therefore, by using “차라리” in the response above, the speaker can indicate that he/she “doesn’t “want to go to school” without explicitly stating it. For example:

Some accents in Korea (usually older people who grew up in the countryside somewhere) change the pronunciation of “말고” to “말구.” I’ve also noticed that younger people are saying “말구” these days in an attempt to sound cute. Give it a try sometime!

That’s it for this lesson!

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